Veterans get help they need at Stand Down event

More than 1,000 veterans from across the state came on Friday to Stand Down, an annual event at the Connecticut Veterans Home in Rocky Hill where veterans can get help dealing with a variety of problems all in one place.

For more than seven years, disabled Navy veteran Deborah Standard, who lives in Baltic, has had trouble getting her medical records.

“They lost my medical records in Hartford,” she said.

Standard was one of more than 1,000 veterans from across the state who came on Friday to Stand Down, an annual event at the Connecticut Veterans Home in Rocky Hill where veterans can get help dealing with a variety of problems all in one place.

A van from the Disabled American Veterans took Standard, who doesn’t have a car, to and from the event. While she wasn’t able to get her records on the spot, “they pointed me in different directions,” Standard said.

While there, Standard also got some information about colleges to continue her education.

“This is what we love,” said Andy Mallory, who represents the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at the submarine base in Groton. He and fellow VA representative Ricardo Sealy staffed a table in one of several dozen tents set up on the grounds of the veterans facility.

“Things like this are very useful,” Mallory said.

Stand Down is set up primarily to help homeless veterans. Buses and vans took hundreds from their hometowns to the event.

The local club chapter sponsors an annual charity motorcycle ride in Jewett City.

“It’s the one day you can get all the services from one location,” said state Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Darien, chairman of the Legislature’s Veterans Affairs Committee.

Veterans could ask about jobs at the state Department of Labor tent; get advice about health insurance; talk to representatives of the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration; get parking tickets taken care of, as well as more serious legal advice; get their eyes and ears checked courtesy of the Lions Club; and get haircuts, dental care, checkups, cellphones and help paying their utility bills.

Everything was free.

“I just wanted to give back,” said Thena Cranfill, of Gales Ferry, a volunteer at a medical tent. “It’s been wonderful being able to interact with veterans.”